edHelper.com History of Books and Writing

Elegant Hieroglyphics

---

Elegant Hieroglyphics
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 9 to 12
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	7.8

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		annoying, ideogram, pictograms, fortitude, obelisk, scribes, decipher, hi-tech, scribe, sandstone, parchment, precision, palette, reading, writing, avid
	content words:		Jean Champollion, Thomas Young, Perhaps Thoth

---

Print Elegant Hieroglyphics

Print Elegant Hieroglyphics  (font options, pick words for additional puzzles, and more)

Quickly Print - PDF format

	Quickly Print: PDF (2 columns per page)
	Quickly Print: PDF (full page)

Quickly Print - HTML format

Quickly Print: HTML

Proofreading Activity

Print a proofreading activity

---

Feedback on Elegant Hieroglyphics

Leave your feedback on Elegant Hieroglyphics  (use this link if you found an error in the story)

---

Elegant Hieroglyphics By Colleen Messina

---

¹     One of Egypt's most creative gods had the head of a bird and the body of a man. Thoth supposedly invented all the arts and sciences. Egyptians also called him the scribe who wrote the story of reality (he was a busy god)! He always held a reed brush and ink palette in his hands, probably to record his ideas. This dynamic being also invented a writing system called hieroglyphics, which means "sacred carvings." Whether by divine inspiration or human invention, elegant Egyptian hieroglyphics appeared about 5,000 years ago.
 
²     We would never be able to read hieroglyphics if a Frenchman had not deciphered the characters on an ancient stone slab. The whole thing started by a fortunate accident in France in 1799. One of Napoleon's engineers took a walk along the Nile and discovered a black, rock slab sticking out of the ground. The slab stuck out about four feet from a mound near the village of Rosetta.
 
³     Napoleon's officer was curious about the stone covered with weird characters, and word about the mysterious "Rosetta stone" spread quickly. Napoleon himself got wind of this discovery. Since he had an avid interest in ancient artifacts, he hired experts to study the stone and figure out what it meant. The only thing the experts agreed on was the stone's importance! The British heard about the strange stone too. In fact, when Napoleon was defeated, the French had to give the Rosetta stone to the British as part of their surrender treaty!
 
⁴     The characters on the Rosetta stone were a fantastically hard puzzle that tried the patience of everyone who tried to decipher them. Imagine how hard it would be to look at squiggles on a rock for years and still have no clue about their meaning! Fortunately, Jean Champollion had the fortitude for the task. He finally figured out some of the symbols with the help of another Englishman, Dr. Thomas Young. They compared the stone to another obelisk from the Nile that had both Greek and Egyptian letters on it. This comparison led to the first breakthrough in deciphering the Rosetta stone.
 
⁵     Part of their difficulty was that there were over three thousand hieroglyphics! Many of the symbols contained animals because the creatures were important in the Egyptian religion. Sometimes scribes gave human faces to the animals. The Egyptians gods were often part lioness, owl, serpent, or eagle! One of the most beloved symbols of ancient Egypt, the great Sphinx, has a lion's body and a man's head. The Egyptians also developed other styles of writing, although they seemed to prefer pictures to letters.

Paragraphs 6 to 11:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable

---

Weekly Reading Books

Create Weekly Reading Books Prepare for an entire week at once!

---

History of Books and Writing

History of Books and Writing

---

More Lessons

High School Reading Comprehensions and High School Reading Lessons

---

Social Studies

Social Studies

2004 Elections         2008 Elections         United States History and Theme Units         American Government         Ancient America         Ancient China         Ancient Egypt         Ancient Greece         Ancient India         Ancient Mesopotamia         Ancient Rome         Biographies         Canadian Theme Unit         Country Theme Units         Crime and Terrorism         Economics

European History: 1600s-1800s         Explorers         Famous Educators         Geography         Grades 2-3 Social Studies Wendy's World Series         History of Books and Writing         History of Mathematics         How Can I Help?         Inventors and Inventions         Middle Ages         Renaissance         World Religion         World War I         World War II         World Wonders

---

More Activities, Lesson Plans, and Worksheets

Back to School Graphic Organizers Alphabet Worksheets Sight Words Math Worksheets Mazes 50 States Education Teaching Monthly Themes January February March April May June July August September October November December

Fractions Place Value Time and Calendar Money Earth Day Solar System Analogies Nouns Following Directions Listening Capitalization Cursive Writing Patterns and Sequencing Dinosaurs All About Me Kindergarten First Grade Second Grade Third Grade Fourth Grade Fifth Grade Sixth Grade

Multiplication Division Main Idea Cause and Effect Measurement Decimals Rounding Order of Operations Verbs Community Helpers Adjectives Plants Grammar Addition and Subtraction Contractions Bulletin Board Ideas Word Searches Crossword Puzzles Printable Puzzles Reading Comprehension Reading Skills English Language Arts

Copyright © 2012 edHelper